Love Her – Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV)

Love Her – Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV)

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

The words for body in these verses vary. They overlap in meaning but they are two different words which may add nuance to the meaning and the point. However, what stood out to me is verse 32 that Paul is "talking about Christ and the church."

If a man and wife are both part of the body of Christ, then loving the other is like loving themself. It’s like wanting as much for your teammates as yourself since you’re on the same team. Loving your spouse as yourself when you are both equal in the body of Christ is the equivalent of loving yourself – and it says no one ever hated their own self.

Obviously there’s more to it than that because it clearly singles out the husband-wife relationship as opposed to just "all believers should love all other believers as themself" and how we become one flesh. Maybe he really does want to make the point that you should take care of your wife.

If there was a practice of some who saw other men as valuable but not women (even their wives), it would be important to point out their equality in the body of Christ.

There’s also a bit of a commanding tone here with some justification – Christ loves His body (you) and you’re one body with your wife (according to God’s decree back in Genesis).